Even James Beard – the father of American gastronomy –was a fan, saying, “Many people damn it, but it adds good flavor and a wonderfully crisptexture to a salad .” (“It also keeps longer than other lettuces,” he pointed out.)

Iceburg Lettuce until the 1930's was known as Crisphead Lettuce.

Iceberg is only 1 of many types of Crisphead lettuce
crisphead lettuce actually has several other varieties, such as imperial, Great Lakes, vanguard and western.

Nutritional Data

Iceberg Imperial Vangaurd
How Crisphead lettuce became known as Iceberg lettuce Bruce Church founder of Fresh Express, was responsible for popularizing the idea of shipping lettuce across the US continent from Salinas, California to the spots on the East coast. Using ice they carefully covered the heads of lettuce and shipped them Year around and all the way as far as Maine, as the train pulled into each stop, folks would call out excitedly, "The icebergs are coming, the icebergs are coming!" The name would stick. Before that people had to depend on what you could grow locally and preserve from the gardens. Movie of Harvesting Iceberg Lettuce

Recipe and Links

Iceburg Lettuce Wraps

One cup of Iceberg lettuce

• 8 calories
• 0.5 gram protein
• 0.7 gram fiber
• 10 mg calcium
• 78 mg potassium
• 1.5 mg vitamin C
• 16 mcg folate
• 13.3 mcg of vitamin K
• 164 mcg beta carotene
• 152 mcg of lutein + zeaxanthin

The good : This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Iron and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate and Manganese.